LOGO DESIGN BLOG   LOGO DESIGN REVIEW

At the closing ceremony of the Torino Olympics, a torch will be passed to the mayor of the next host city, which will be Vancouver, Canada in 2o10. Let’s take a look at the logo for Vancouver, which is oozing with just as much symbolism as Torino’s.

Vancouver’s Olympic logo is a stylized image of the inukshuk, which were stacked rock formations that served as guideposts created by the Inuit people to provide direction in the vast wilderness areas on the North, according to Vancouver’s officical Olympic website. The image has become a symbol of friendship, hope and hospitality, and is called “Ilanaaq,” the Inukitut word for friend.

Here is a more complete history of the inukshuk. Here is another good resource for a history.

The Vancouver Olympic committee decided to run a contest to create the logo design. They recieved more than 1600 entries and finally decided on the one you see here, which was designed by the Riviera Design Group of Vancouver. The colors in the inukshuk are the same ones you see in the Olypmic rings, minus the “arms” of the inukshuk, which are a darker shade of blue instead of black, which appears in the Olympic rings but not in the inukshuk icon. I’m not sure what the font is yet, but using “What the Font” on MyFonts.com , I came up with Relay Medium as a good possibility.

You may also recognize the inukshuk logo from Rush’s album “Test For Echo.”

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 10:18 am and is filed under Logo Design, Logo Design News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.